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Libraries have been under attack across the state of Alabama, and the nonprofit EveryLibrary warned Wednesday that election results likely mean more to come.
“(Tuesday) night, American voters elected politicians who proposed defunding libraries while slandering library workers,” the group said in a statement Wednesday. “The previous Trump administration proposed gutting Federal Funding for libraries every year he was in office. Project 2025’s stated anti-library aims are clear. EveryLibrary has been shouting about the threats to public libraries, school libraries, academic libraries, and the people they serve for months. We are committed to working in coalition with local, state, and national libraries and allied organizations to oppose the framework and proposals embedded in Project 2025. “
Project 2025 coalition partners in Alabama including Moms for Liberty, Eagle Forum and Alabama Policy Institute have been pushing at every level to change library and policy law. Clean Up Alabama, which is now part of a broader coalition with Moms for Liberty and LOCAL, led the charge in Prattville with demands for policies that would prohibit LGBTQ books from youth sections as well as books that are “sexually explicit.”
The Autauga-Prattville Public Library Board, replaced by members friendly to that cause, implemented polices that are currently embroiled in a months-long lawsuit. Both sides are awaiting a ruling from US District Judge Myron Thompson on whether the policy will be reversed while awaiting a full trial.
At the Alabama Public Library Service, ALGOP chair and APLS board member John Wahl has led the push to change conditions for libraries to receive state aid. Libraries are now required to keep sexually explicit and “other inappropriate materials” out of the reach of minors.
In the Legislature, House Bill 4 by Rep. Arnold Mooney, R-Indian Springs, is destined for passage that would allow librarians to be charged with misdemeanors if they refuse to remove a book from the shelves that a citizen believes to be “harmful to minors.” Whether the book is actually “harmful to minors” under Alabama law would have to be adjudicated through district or municipal court. The bill is sponsored by 50 Republican lawmakers in all.
“The future of our public, academic, and school libraries cannot be taken for granted. (Tuesday) night’s results are not a temporary problem,” EveryLibrary said. “Without some intervention to combat misinformation around libraries and library workers, voters will not suddenly realize they were wrong about their lack of support for these institutions. We have seen too many states pass laws that look like Project 2025, that throttle access, discriminate against minorities, and threaten librarians and educators. They have demanded that librarians lose access to their professional associations. We have seen local attacks on libraries and the freedom to read across the country from Huntington Beach, California to Glenn Ridge, New Jersey. Over a dozen states have enacted or attempted to enact legislation calling for prosecuting librarians and library workers.”
